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The Semi-Colon – Useless or Useful?

As I continue working on the follow-up to “The Dark Proposal”, I’ve been paying close attention to my punctuation use. Usually I am concerned if I use my commas too often or too little. But I noticed something the other day that I’d like to share with you.

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Semi-colons seem to be somewhat controversial with writers. And I mean all writers: fiction, technical, journalists and so on. While going for my Master’s in journalism, I was taught what the semi-colon actually was good for after years of not being entirely sure. That lesson has helped me when I write articles for outlets I freelance for.

But I get the impression fiction writers have no use for the semi-colon. Based on what I’ve read on author forums and blogs, using a semi-colon while telling a story is being lazy. It is lazy because it doesn’t allow the writer to stop the sentence they are writing and start a new one. It also doesn’t give the reader an understanding of what is being told. If a semi-colon is meant to connect two independent clauses that are necessary to tell a story, then why make them dependent on each other?

That seems to make sense. Take a look at this example:

She was freezing outside; she knew she should’ve worn a better coat.

And then look at this one:

She was freezing outside. She knew she should’ve worn a better coat.

Both examples are significant. The first one makes the two clauses conjoined in a way, while the second example isolates the two to make them stand out.

I think the use of a semi-colon should depend on the tone of the story. The first example may be good for a light-hearted story while the second is good for a more serious one. The latter would pull the reader in more while the former allows the reader to sit back and relax.

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15 thoughts on “The Semi-Colon – Useless or Useful?”

My second book has a lot of semi-colons. I don’t think my first book used any, but the heroines are very different. The one in the first book is very direct and black and white, while the second one has to play in a more shaded area. In that way, it makes sense.

This is quite classic in a lot of older fiction isn’t it? I may be wrong but I think DH Lawrence made fairly bold use of the semi-colon (ah, if that’s not a contradiction of what I said before…) not hesitating to stick one in after an ‘and’.

I agree entirely Megan. Removing the semi-colon gives a more dramatic tone to the prose. Take that to its fullest extent and you can even use a new paragraph. So with your example it would be:

She was freezing outside.

She knew she should have worn a better coat.

It’s so dramatic in tone that it’s almost clichéd in this sense (what could be so tense about wrapping yourself a bit more effectively against the cold?!) But if she’s about to be showered with some kind of skin-eating toxin, then perhaps it’s appropriate. More probable though, is that we’re just talking about the cold and nothing more. It’s my opinion (and I think semi-colons are very subjective) is that the less profound you want to make your clauses, the more appropriate the use for them.

As usual I am just thinking out loud here though, happy to be corrected 🙂

First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.

And I realize some of you may be having trouble deciding whether I am kidding or not. So from now on I will tell you when I’m kidding.” -Kurt Vonnegut

“Sometimes you get a glimpse of a semicolon coming, a few lines farther on, and it is like climbing a steep path through woods and seeing a wooden bench just at a bend in the road ahead, a place where you can expect to sit for a moment, catching your breath.” -Lewis Thomas

Generally, I think I mainly use semicolons when writing lists – they’re a good way to clearly mark what’s a seperate item, whereas a comma could indicate a slightly complicated description of one item.

I think I used to use semicolons more often than I do now, so that could be a sign of me maturing as a writer!

Whenever my Word program shows there should be a semi-colon instead of a comma, I make it two sentence. I want to add semi-colons sometimes, but avoid it, especially for internal dialogue, usually serving as narrative. People just don’t think in colons. Thoughts and dialogue can be disjointed, incomplete, etc. because that’s how people think and talk, but even a omnipresent narrative doesn’t make as much sense with a semi-colon. I think semi-colon can be used in non-fiction, articles where two ideas can be related, but not in fiction.